This comparative analysis aims to capture the complex roles and positionings of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in conjunction with local education systems in Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea. Our analysis focused on how the IB’s institutional legitimacy is presented in the three societies. We conducted a documentary analysis of texts on the introduction and implementation of IB programmes into local school systems. Our findings suggest that there are commonalities and variations in how the IB is interpreted by key local agents and is positioned into local education systems. Specifically, across the three societies, the IB has expanded continuously. At the same time, its institutionalisation process varies by each society’s socio-historical context and needs: substantive legitimacy as the international curriculum of choice in Hong Kong, a quiet supplement to elite education in Singapore, and instrumental curriculum borrowing for fixing the education system in Korea. We also find that the institutionalisation of the IB is limited at a symbolic level and controlled by the Singaporean government, while the IB is saliently promoted by local education authorities in the context of education reform in Korea. The institutionalisation process of the IB in Hong Kong is primarily swayed by market principles under the existing school choice system. Copyright © 2021 Educational Review.

Both Hong Kong and Macau issued civic education documents before their sovereignty was returned to China. These two internationalized cities aimed to prepare for the future when their colonial governance was coming to an end. Having taken decolonization policies into consideration, it is understandable that sovereignty regimes have their own self-designed citizenship education plans. Judgments with selective commentaries on public and political events could transmit various and crucial political messages. Their proposed curriculum might differ in contents but their essential qualities of civic education targeted at facilitating students’ core values and positive attitudes. Deficiencies are thus identified and how such deficiencies are later reflected in history is noted. The new concepts of citizenship were merely prominent in these two areas and the contents were no longer creative. It is observable that the lack of adoption of recommendations on education concerned with the nurturing of young people and their empowerment with self-determinism is clearly perceptible, under the so-called “one country, two systems” governance. Or, it may well be that something was overlooked. If so, it may be that there may be a lack of planning for social harmony and sustainability of these metropolitan cities. The problem is quite thought-provoking. Coryright © 2018 David Publishing Company.

The current paper examined the effects of A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All (ABRA), a web-based literacy programme developed by the the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia University, on primary school children in Hong Kong. The participants were 249 Primary 1 students from two low social economic status schools in Hong Kong and the two schools were well-matched on many demographic characteristics. All participating students were pre-tested in the fall and post-tested in the following spring. After adjusting for pretest differences, the treatment school scored significantly higher than the controls on three of the six outcome measures at post-tests: phoneme-grapheme correspondence (ES = +0.22, p < 0.05), phoneme segmentation (ES = +0.46, p < 0.00), and nonsense word fluency (ES = +0.22, p < 0.06). Both treatment and control students scored similarly on word reading, listening comprehension, and initial sound fluency. The outcomes of the study provides some promising evidence of the effects of ABRA on Chinese primary students in Hong Kong, especially on the enhancement of phonological skills, thus leading to early success in the formative years of learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Practical implications are discussed.
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The quality of a teacher plays one of the most important roles in the achievement of an education system. Teacher training is a multi-dimensional process which comprises the selection of teacher candidates, pre-service training, appointment, in-service training and teaching practices. Therefore, this study focuses on teacher training processes in Singapore, Shanghai-China, Hong Kong-China and Turkey and aims to discover the reasons for success in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) by relating it with teacher training processes. Singapore, Shanghai-China, Hong Kong-China were chosen to study because their educational systems were ranked among the high-performing educational systems in 2016. This study was a qualitative research and document analysis method was used to collect data about the relevant countries' teacher training processes. The result of the study suggested some practical considerations for teacher training programs in low-performing education systems about the selection of teacher candidates, pre-service training, appointment, in-service training and teaching practices.
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Co-curricular activities in general are believed to be useful for students' development, such as improvement in academic performance, higher retention rate, enhancement of social and competency skills, and assistance of youth development and employment. With the expansion of the education sector and the implementation of a new 3-3-4 education system in Hong Kong, the background and training of students is different from the past, so it is worthwhile investigating students' interest, understanding and perceptions about co-curricular activities nowadays in an Asian context. Comparison between the perceptions of sub-degree and degree students is discussed. Similarities and differences are found in both groups of students. Based on the findings, suggestions are made to education institutions in planning their resources on co-curricular activities.
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This article offers a new explanation for considerable continuity in citizenship education policy in Hong Kong despite the change from British to Chinese sovereignty. Focusing on the form by which citizenship education is carried out and the instruments by which it has been promoted, the article argues that citizenship education has been both enabled and constrained by a distinctive policy paradigm developed out of traditional Chinese moral education, a British ambivalence toward political education, and a reaction against Mainland Chinese Communist political education. A comparison of citizenship education policy in China, Britain, and Hong Kong reveals that a key aspect of this paradigm is a fear of indoctrination, which has been made explicit in public sentiment, policy debates, and policy programs.
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